Rafa Benitez has been speaking about the January transfer window today, revealing that he is looking to add ‘experience, physicality and quality’ to his side this winter – stating that Newcastle need to find players to keep them in the Premier League, not the next best player for the next 10 years.
Whilst Benitez may be in the dark over how much he has to spend next month, he is aware (as we all are!) that additions are needed in January to give us a much needed boost ahead of the second half of the season.
Speaking to The Chronicle, Benitez spoke out about the requirements of any new signings who may arrive in the January window:
“The priority is to stay in the Premier League – not find the next best player for the next 10 years. We must make sure we have what we need to compete.
“We need to have the experience, physicality and quality to improve the team.”
Rafa was then asked if loan deals were an option for him this winter. To this he said:
“Yes, we have to analyse every possibility because at the moment we don’t know what is going on.
“We have to consider every option and see it’s for us or not.”
Given things remain up in the air on the takeover front, it is no surprise we would be looking into the possibility of loan deals, with Ashley likely to be unwilling to splash out much money on a club he plans to sell.
Finally, Benitez then admitted (once again) that his recruitment team still ‘don’t know where we are’, however remains calm about any potential January spending, knowing that there is still a month to go until the window opens, and almost two months until it then closes:
“We have had some conversations but we still don’t know where we are. There’s still one month, plus one more before the January window closes, so we will see.”
Rafa is clearly unsure of what will happen in January, and while that’s a concern given how important it could be to our survival, Benitez is spot on in prioritising the signing of players for today, not tomorrow, in order to secure of Premier League status.
